The tenth direction:  Cry to God that He would inflame thy will also with the things of the other world.  For when a man’s will is fully set to do such or such a thing, then it must be a very hard matter that shall hinder that man from bringing about his end.  When Paul’s will was set resolvedly to go up to Jerusalem (tho it was signified to him before what he should there suffer), he was not daunted at all; nay, saith he, “I am ready (or willing) not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”  His will was inflamed with love to Christ; and therefore all the persuasions that could be used wrought nothing at all.

Your self-willed people, nobody knows what to do with them:  we use to say, he will have his own will, do all what you can.  Indeed, to have such a will for heaven, is an admirable advantage to a man that undertaketh a race thither; a man that is resolved, and hath his will fixt, saith he, I will do my best to advantage myself; I will do my worst to hinder my enemies; I will not give out as long as I can stand; I will have it or I will lose my life; “tho he slay me, yet will I trust in him.  I will not let thee go except thou bless me.”  I will, I will, I will, oh this blest inflamed will for heaven!  What is it like?  If a man be willing, then any argument shall be a matter of encouragement; but if unwilling, then any argument shall give discouragement; this is seen both in saints and sinners; in them that are the children of God, and also those that are the children of the devil.  As,

1.  The saints of old, they being willing and resolved for heaven, what could stop them?  Could fire and fagot, sword or halter, stinking dungeons, whips, bears, bulls, lions, cruel rackings, stoning, starving, nakedness, etc., “and in all these things they were more than conquerors, through him that loved them”; who had also made them “willing in the day of his power.”

2.  See again, on the other side, the children of the devil, because they are not willing, how many shifts and starting-holes they will have.  I have a married wife, I have a farm, I shall offend my landlord, I shall offend my master, I shall lose my trading, I shall lose my pride, my pleasures, I shall be mocked and scoffed, therefore I dare not come.  I, saith another, will stay till I am older, till my children are out, till I am got a little aforehand in the world, till I have done this and that and the other business; but, alas! the thing is, they are not willing; for, were they but soundly willing, these, and a thousand such as these, would hold them no faster than the cords held Samson, when he broke them like burnt flax.  I tell you the will is all:  that is one of the chief things which turns the wheel either backward or forward; and God knoweth that full well, and so likewise doth the devil; and therefore they both endeavor very much to strengthen the will of their servants; God, He is for making of His a willing people to serve